#there’s also a hell of a lot of magic worldbuilding contained in my silly little series!!

[thebluestbluewords]

Good news! If you would like to read this fic, this is the political background for my ongoing fic series which you can find on ao3 right here! I’m currently slow to update due to having a life outside of my gay dcom blog, but there's a frankly embarrassing amount of unposted fic for this series in my google docs and I do fully intend to post it once I have the time.

Kingdom, Phylum, Region…

None of this makes sense. 

None of it has to make sense. 

It's all made up anyway. 

SO!!

The United Sovereignties of Auradon. An Alliance of all the Fairy Tale Kingdoms. Established under the rule of King Beast (Adam of Alsitan) in the approximate year 19xx, directly following the Third Villain Uprising of the early twentieth century. 

The United Sovereignties is made up of nineteen regions, each of which is composed of 2-5 smaller kingdoms. 

Kingdoms may contain cities, or for more urban regions, the kingdom may be just a city. 

For example, Auroria is a kingdom in the region of South Riding. Auroria is one of the denser, more urban kingdoms, and is primarily composed of Auroria City, and a few surrounding suburbs. They do not hold farmland, but are a key holder of shops and industry for the region. They are governed by a ruling family and a number of advisors, who are hired to their positions by the King and Queen. 

In contrast with this, Nottinghamshire is classified as a kingdom in the region of Westerly. Nottinghamshire does not consider themselves a kingdom, as they are not ruled by a king. Instead, they have a governor and a number of elected officials who make decisions for the kingdom.

 Within Nottinghamshire, there are a number of towns and cities, each of whom have their own noble families. Sherwood Forest is a town within the kingdom of Nottinghamshire, as is the town of Locksley. 

Some towns are governed by their noble families, and some have elected or hired officials. The decision is left up to the town, and typically requires approval of their governing kingdom to change their system.

Each kingdom works in cooperation with the others in their region for more widespread decisions. (ie, real life counties working together for statewide changes). 

The nineteen regions of the United Sovereignties of Auradon come together once a quarter to act as the USA Governing Council. Each region sends one representative, and the designated representative role rotates through the kingdoms of that region. 

The USA Governing Council is headed by the High King of Auradon, presently HRH King Beast, to be succeeded by his son once he comes of age. 

"of age" for legal purposes happens at sixteen, but the young king (or any other young royal, unless their kingdom has established otherwise) does not gain full power of kingship until the age of twenty-five, or until they are married, whichever comes first. 

Side note - because of this law, most royalty is expected to marry between 18-20. Long enough to ensure a wise match, but not so long that they're losing any time in power. 

There are also a number of associated kingdoms, who are not part of the Auradon Alliance, but work closely with the USA and attend council meetings as allies. These associated kingdoms include Northern Wei, Agrabah, and most recently, Arendelle. 

(Arendelle is a recent ally, who are vehemently opposed to the Auradonian magic ban, and relationships are tense between King Beast and Queen Elsa because of this). 

The Isle of the Lost is a former trade port. It used to be the main outpost between the area presently known as the USA and the Southern Isles, but after the Third Villain Uprising, it was deemed uninhabitable enough to be delegated as a containment place for all the villains and their sidekicks who were involved in the uprising. 

The Isle does not have viable farmland, and is completely reliant on the mainland for agricultural imports. 

more thoughts to come later…..

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

Miscellany about Mia in the Fae AU, simultaneously making myself sad and laughing. Who wants nearly 2000 words of assorted thoughts about Mia Fae, because you can get them here.

So at this point, we obviously know Mia to be a semi-omniscient (I know that’s kind of an oxymoron) presence lingering over the office, stopping Phoenix’s stupid ass from getting killed, and doing classic poltergeist things like breaking mirrors and throwing things but in a way that provides guidance to her people when they need a push. She is the Wise Dead Mentor, as in canon, but kicking around long past when she stops being an active figure in canon. 

But we don’t know her when she was alive. We get those snippets of dialogue of her and Phoenix to bookend his flashback chapters, and we get Phoenix telling Apollo and Vera about her. And the latter, at least, is definitely unreliable -- Phoenix isn’t trying to actually be unreliable in that moment, but his memory is colored with nostalgia and grief and loss, so the information he gives the kids is basically “she was perfect and unique and infallible and stronger than anyone”.... which I mean.... there’s a reason Vera follows up with the question that she does, because that sounds so romanticized to her, especially since the only fae she knows are herself (naive and unwitting criminal) and Kristoph (bastard). 

Mia was very very strong. But Dahlia was about her equal, I think -- which Phoenix does not want to think about -- and Mia still died and obviously was neither perfect nor immortal.

And -- this is some psuedo-canon that I’m not quite sure if I’ll ever put into the text directly, because I feel like if I say it I’ve got to work out the exact logistics of how it works, and in case you haven’t noticed, I am not worldbuilding with a hard rule-defined magic system, here. The lines are all blurry, except I am also an obsessive perfectionist, so even though I keep saying “I fudge a lot of the terms of what magic can and can’t do, I’m standardizing a few things, but most of it is whatever causes the most problems for our protagonists” I am also driven with this horrible desire that even if it never becomes relevant in-text, I need to know for my own purposes. But anyway --

Part of what I’ve got in my head is that, Dahlia was horribly strong, clearly. Vera survives being cursed -- Phoenix was dying within seconds of Dahlia’s curse. And in my head, Mia’s blessing is more than that -- it was part of her own life force. That’s why White killed her relatively easily (though she didn’t properly die); because she had already weakened herself, because she had given that up to Phoenix. She wanted to foil Dahlia, desperately, but it was also a reaction of her guilt at not having saved Diego from Dahlia. She couldn’t save him, but she can save Phoenix, and she pays a high price to do so.

And Phoenix knows this, or thinks of it in this way: Chapter 8, he says “He’s a dead man, living on time borrowed – no, stolen – from someone else.” He thinks he’s the reason that Mia is gone, and he’s not sure if he was worth her life.

(On this topic, sort of, about the one thing that Vera asks him in Chapter 15, I don’t and I never have shipped Mia and Phoenix, but I do believe that he was definitely in love with her, kind of in a “puppy love he knows is unattainable and is at least partially just loving the concept of her” way, from maybe soon after his trial until sometime after she died. Like canonically, he shifts from calling her “Chief” to calling her “Mia” at some point after her death, when they’re working together, and I see that shift as him moving on from carrying such a torch for her and them standing on equal footing. Anyway. Characterization things that don’t really have much bearing here! Now you know.)

This is all to say that Phoenix’s idealization of her when he talks about her as pretty much the strongest and best of all the fae, is a little bit of a tilted perspective.

Because when she was alive and trying to be human, she was really, really fucking weird.

Like. The fae are weird. Maya is a terrifying goblin girl who likes cheap fast food and samurai shows and contains about a hundred teeth and the entire void inside of her mouth. Mia leaned closer to human in terms of her morals -- eg if she was still alive and able to help with the Kristoph situation, Phoenix would have asked for her help instead of pushing Maya away because he knows he can’t tell her anything or else she’ll kill people -- but she still was not good at being a human being.

This is because of the two people she learned how to be human from: Lana and Diego.

Lana she met in law school, was attracted to because of her intelligence, her determination, and also the fact that she’s very very pretty. In Chapter 8, Ema and Phoenix have that conversation about souls, referencing back to Lana, and Ema clearly knows that Mia was one of the fae and knew it before she ever met Phoenix, and this is because Mia at that point was bad at pretending to be human. Lana spent time with her, Lana realizes, “oh, hey, you did not grow up here, as in here, the world as I know it”. And Mia tries to learn from Lana how people act, but she cannot learn from Lana what normal human dedication to something is, because Lana is highly driven at everything she does. Lana throws herself into everything knowing she will get it done, Lana comes out the other side of an all-nighter still pretty sharp and ready to go with the next thing, and Mia is like “ah, yes, this are ordinary human limitations” and they are not. She does realize that Lana has a more formal, restrained manner of speaking, and she does look around for other people to observe to figure out how to talk.

This, unfortunately, lands her with Diego, who’s much much more casual with everyone, except he’s still in love with bullshit metaphors and being vague as hell, and Mia is like “ah, perfect, I know how to talk like this” except nobody but them talks like this. You two are why Grossberg has a flask in his desk, you know. He day-drinks because you two are master-class at bullshitting and saying meaningful meaningless things. Diego is also not a good litmus for human caffeine consumption, but again, Mia is like “yeah, okay, this is how people are” and they aren’t. 

Also you know how there’s some incredibly hot concept art of Mia as a biker? Some time after poisoning Diego and then spiriting him into a pocket dimension (Dahlia doesn’t do things in halves, Dahlia does the human method of getting rid of someone and then the fae one, leaves the trail cold in two directions), Dahlia sends Iris to get the necklace back and flees the city, and Mia buys a motorcycle and goes chasing her down, and that’s what Mia’s absence from court in that time is about. (Mia is very confused when she catches up to Dahlia in LA again and Dahlia has apparently been there the whole time dating this college kid, because she knows Dahlia was not in LA but apparently was.) And while doing that, Mia doesn’t really need to bother too much with being a human person, she can just roll in to roadside diners and truck stops and be that weird nameless biker chick who no one will ever see again, so when she gets back and takes Phoenix under her wing, she is still, just, weird. 

She never figures out how to give direct advice, she never figures out what healthy caffeine consumption for humans is, she never figures out lots of little things that if you’re around someone long-term will make you say “hey what the fuck is wrong with you”, but since she’s associating really only with Phoenix at this point, who knows what she is, it doesn’t matter. And Phoenix, conversely, doesn’t care, because she saved his life, because she is helping him on his path to save his friend, and later, he doesn’t care because he’s mourning her and misses her and all the most important things about her to him overshadow the weirdness.

(”Mr Wright, can you ask her to stop getting my attention by throwing things at me?” Apollo says and Phoenix is like “I don’t understand the question, that’s how she is, what’s the problem?”)

The one thing Mia does learn, most importantly, and mostly from Lana, is about how humans love. The Winter Court is a place of backstabbing and deceit, among family as much as anywhere else. Misty loved her daughters and did not see them as a threat and that was odd and that is partially why Misty left; Mia and Maya loved each other and that was odd and that is partially why Mia left; Iris loved Dahlia and that was odd (Dahlia used her more as a pawn in return, which is typical). Morgan loved her daughter as a pawn but as a pawn to get Pearl power for herself, not for Morgan, which is odd. These two generations of the Winter Royals were just odd, more human in sentiment than those prior, the start of a shift, but -- Mia meets Lana, a young woman who has lost her parents, who loves her younger sister with her whole heart and is raising her and taking care of her and doing her best for her, and Mia sees this, and something fully, entirely, clicks for Mia. And she wishes she and Maya could be like that in the Court without fearing the politicking around them, without fearing others trying to play them against each other, without fear, in general. 

(You know, when Ema first meets Phoenix, she asks if he’s Mia, which is like, haha, silly girl, and we forget it because Ema obviously knows who Mia is because Mia and Lana obviously were girlfriends in school. But in this universe, Ema asks, tentatively, if he is Mia, because she does not know how much the fae cannot change forms, does not know if Mia has taken a new shape and name since Ema last saw her.)

Phoenix, meeting Ema, though, he is reminded of Mia, and Maya, and that is because Mia started patterning herself after them. And in that, Mia did succeed at seeming very, very human.

(Maya loves her sister just as much, has always, did always, knew that wasn’t normal among the fae but didn’t know it was possible for humans to just be without fighting each other for title and throne, and this Maya learns from Phoenix, and this she brings back to the Court. This is how she takes to Pearl, the way Mia was with her, and she tries to build a loving family out of them, to change the entire backstabbing culture of the Court her own damn self. And that informs how she deals with Iris, later -- she doesn’t kill Iris, doesn’t strip her of power and exile her, doesn’t lock her up in a pocket dimension or in iron. She extends an olive branch, because Phoenix forgives, because Mia loves, and because they are family, and because Iris’ greatest sin was Mia’s greatest strength, which was loving her sister.)

[an-unraveling-unknown]

I WOULD LOVE TO ACTUALLY. THIS IS MY FAVORITE THING :DD /g

I have multiple projects and so I'll just talk about and couple and try to keep this short (keyword 'try') and you can absolutely ask for further context in stuff you find interesting - no worries if nothing catches your eye though! (EDIT: I did not in fact keep it short. terribly sorry. I got excited, feel free to bail if its too much reading material lmao)

'[I need to make a title for this]': Follows Locke,* an over-six-million y/o android with the air of a sopping wet cat who's one and only purpose is containing the fear of the first human race (who promptly all died because of so. its a long story altogether) and thus they both watched the fall and rise of human beings, which believe it or not does a lot to an AI. They have so many issues. The one and only (admittedly strenuous, though that's their own fault) connection they've allowed themselves to have is with Deimos, the Embodiment of Human Fear (and human fear specifically), a shapeshifter with a love for all things creation. The two of them haven't met in millennia, however, something to change when the android ventures into a forest that shouldn't ought to exist, to a house that had never been built, and finds themselves ambushed with his numerous adopted children whilst they ponder what the hell is happening. Surprise!

I haven't the slightest as to what the narrative actually is, but so far I'm thinking slice-of-life which bits and pieces here that clicks into a bigger story until it all goes bonkers at the end. Generally a healing story for the most part, but it's moreso just me taking a shot at making something original. There are so many star motifs, it's absurd. Also, loads of mythology of all kinds is being poured onto Locke because this artificial embodiment has a deep-rooted connection with stories. Also, vague explorations of time as a concept. Also, did I mention throwing in my two cents of what exactly it means to be human? cos thats there too. Its mostly just ideas so far, but I'm really proud of it and what it could be :D

*They're my favorite, so naturally they're a goddamn disaster.

'The Undertale AU': Started working on this half-baked goofy thing when I was eleven, and it wasn't even originally supposed to be an AU. Because all of my interests generally revolve around 'why is it like that though' and Undertale leaves a whole lot of 'why' to be interpreted, I set out to make sense of things in a nonsensical game. Easy enough. Why are skeletons a thing? Magic, namely alchemists trying to revive the dead and ending up with alive tapestries of bones in a vague human shape (there was a long legal battle in determining if they should be classified as 'human' or 'monster' after that cos' it was human skeletons were used, [humans had come together and disbanded from the rest of the races a little while before this, naming themselves n all that - theres a whole alternate history thing going on], and then there was the argument over the ethics of digging up human bodies for experimental purposes; it was a long year). Where does magic come from? the core of the earth of course! Why? who bloody knows! And then, out of the thinnest air imaginable one day, I thought "haha, what if toby fox fell into the underground?? what a goofy thought. a real silly billy i am. wait" and the Why train went off the rails from there because it answered a whole lot of 'why' in one go and henceforth I kept it and now somehow the universe in of itself functions like a living creature and is ripping apart at the seams. its also W.D Gaster's fault. its basically worldbuilding but extra.

'The Baldur's Gate Three Thing'

Funny story, my current One True Love is DnD after being introduced to it by my lovely eldest brother and by extension I've thrown myself at the latest Baldur's Gate because why not. One problem with that, the one and only thing you have to do in regards to world building is creating your character, and I wasn't having it for whatever reason on the specific day I decided to succumb to this thing and so I figured 'Hey, what if I just pull characters from another project that I'm not working on to flesh them out a bit more. yeah thats reasonable' and that was how the Physical Embodiment of Death at Sea and the Physical Embodiment of Life at Sea were thrown into the Forgotten Realms. Story generally follows the Death sibling, or 'Aeonian' as they named themself, as they tear themselves away from the safety of the ocean to find their missing older sister Monad with only their guard dog complex, their cleverness, and sheer will. Oh, and the adventuring party later on of course. Their character narrative kind of exists more outside the game because the whole embodiment bit (and other things connecting to the siblings) just does not exist in The Forgotten Realms, but it's a good time.

'Where the Baldur's Gate OC's SHOULD be-' Connected to the overall world of the first story I talked about, a Stardew Valley AU that follows Aeonian as the farmer, still looking for their sister but this time under different circumstances. I don't have too much to say for this one because I've hardly worked on it, but I can tell you that the placeholder name is 'The Stars Below' because I fricking love my star motifs (IT ALSO HAS STORY SIGNIFICANCE I PROMISE)

once again reminded that the best format to present my ocs and their stories would probably be an ask blog because i work best with questions, but i am also being held in a fascinatingly thorough chokehold by my old friend Burnout